The Breakfast Club (Wild and Crazy Summer)

Welcome to The Breakfast Club! We’re a disorganized group of rebel lefties who hang out and chat if and when ~~we’re not too hungover~~ ~~we’ve been bailed out~~ ~~we’re not too exhausted from last night’s (CENSORED)~~ the caffeine kicks in. Join us every weekday morning at 9am (ET) and weekend morning at 10:30am (ET) to talk about current news and our boring lives and to make fun of LaEscapee! If we are ever running late, it’s PhilJD’s fault.

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This Day in History

Truman announces Japan’s surrender in World War II; Blackout hits Northeast U.S., Canada; FDR signs Social Security; British troops arrive in N. Ireland; A strike in Cold War Poland; Steve Martin born.

Breakfast Tunes

Something to Think about over Coffee Prozac

I actually credit Twitter with fine-tuning some joke-writing skills. I still feel like I’m working at it. Steve Martin

Breakfast News

As Social Security Reaches 80, Americans’ Love for Program Remains Strong

An overwhelming majority of Americans supports Social Security’s contribution to the common good, a new AARP survey has found.

The findings (pdf), released on the eve of program’s 80th anniversary, show how vital the program continues to be.

“As we celebrate Social Security on its 80th anniversary, our survey found that it remains as important as ever to American families,” said AARP CEO Jo Ann Jenkins.

The organization’s national survey of public opinions found that 80 percent of all age groups are currently depending on or plan to depend on Social Security for their retirement income.

Ending Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood may be illegal, officials warn

Louisiana and Alabama may be violating federal law by ending state Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood, federal health officials warned the states after both announced they were cutting off the payments.

Kevin Griffis, a spokesman for the US Department of Health and Human Services, said on Thursday that the federal Medicaid agency notified the states of the possible violation.

“Longstanding Medicaid laws prohibit states from restricting individuals who have coverage through Medicaid from receiving care from a qualified provider,” Griffis said in a statement. “By restricting which provider a woman could choose to receive care from, women could lose access to critical preventive care, such as cancer screenings.”

Pentagon blocking Guantánamo deals to return Shaker Aamer and other cleared detainees

The Pentagon is blocking the return of UK permanent resident Shaker Aamer and two other longtime Guantánamo Bay detainees for whom the US Department of State has completed diplomatic deals to transfer home, the Guardian has learned.

American and UK diplomats reached an agreement in late 2013 for the return of Aamer, who has spent more than 13 years at the infamous detention facility without charge, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the understanding.

But even as the White House pledged to make his case a priority after a personal plea from David Cameron, Barack Obama’s defense secretaries have played what one official called “foot-dragging and process games” to let the deals languish.

Jeb Bush refuses to rule out use of torture if he becomes US president

Jeb Bush has declined to rule out the US resuming the use of torture – with the Republican presidential hopeful saying brutal questioning methods might be justifiable and necessary in some circumstances.

The former Florida governor said in general he believed torture was inappropriate and his brother, former President George W Bush, largely ended the CIA’s use of the techniques before he left office. The CIA had been using waterboarding, slapping, nudity, sleep deprivation, humiliation and other methods to coerce al-Qaida detainees – methods the military would be prohibited from using on prisoners of war.

Chelsea Manning supporters condemn threat of indefinite solitary confinement

Almost 40,000 signatures have been added to petitions calling on the US military to drop charges against the army soldier and Guardian columnist Chelsea Manning that could put her into indefinite solitary confinement for violations that include storing a tube of expired toothpaste in her military prison cell.

The charges, in which Manning is accused of “disrespect”, “disorderly conduct” and other violations under the rules of the brig in which she is being held at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, have prompted an outpouring of anger from the public. The original petition posted by the internet freedom group Fight for the Future has gained more than 15,000 signatures, together with about 20,000 combined for petitions from Roots Action and Demand Progress.

CIA Whistleblower to Civil Rights Groups: Where are You?

A former CIA officer described as the latest victim of the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers has issued a scathing open letter to civil rights groups asking, “Where were you?”

In the letter published at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jeffrey Sterling, who is black, specifically calls out the NAACP, National Action Network, Rainbow PUSH Coalition, and Congressional Black Caucus, writing “I saw you when other black faces were either killed or mistreated.” But, to these civil rights groups, he writes, he is “invisible.”

In a case that relied on circumstantial evidence, Sterling was convicted in January on nine separate felony charges, including seven counts of espionage.

Ohio voters to decide on marijuana legalization in November election

Ohio citizens will vote on whether to legalize recreational and medicinal marijuana use in November, a decision that could concentrate the state’s legal marijuana business to 10 growers.

Ohio’s secretary of state Jon Husted said on Wednesday that a measure to legalize marijuana had collected enough signatures to appear on the ballot in the state’s 3 November election.

The measure includes a provision that would allow only 10 growers to grow and sell pot commercially.

Critics, including the state legislature, say this could create a monopoly. The legislature added a measure, called Issue 2, to the ballot that would block monopolies from operating in Ohio.

According to Husted, if both measures are approved, the one introduced by the legislature would take precedence.

As of Today, Humanity Has Exhausted its 2015 Supply of Natural Resources

As of Thursday, August 13, human beings have officially exhausted the planet’s yearly supply of natural resources, meaning that for the rest of 2015, earth will be running an “ecological deficit”-accumulating carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and depleting the planet for future generations.

This is the disturbing estimate of the Global Footprint Network (GFN), which calculates the planet’s “overshoot day” on an annual basis. The troubling milestone comes less than eight months into 2015 and six days earlier than last year’s-a symptom of what the organization warns is a “looming catastrophe.”

Rosetta captures images of jet-blasting comet

Cameras on the Rosetta spacecraft captured powerful jets of steam and dust erupting from comet 67P as it tore past the sun on Thursday morning. Images beamed back from the probe showed the comet spewing material as it warmed up on its closest pass of the sun and began its journey back out into the frigid far reaches of the solar system.

Pictures taken a few hours before the comet’s close encounter with the sun recorded one powerful outburst that flung a visible, bright, stream of dust and vapour several kilometres into space.

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